The Uburu App Aims to Reduce Instances of Roadkill in Brazil

Urubu (meaning 'vulture' in Portuguese) is an app developed in Brazil that uses crowdsourcing to identify roadkill hotspots around the country to prevent incidents of animals being struck and killed by vehicles. It is estimated that some 475 million animals die from being struck on Brazil's roads each year, equating to around 15 animals per second. The Brazilian Center for Studies in Road Ecology developed the Urubu app in a bid to reduce those disturbing numbers.

The Urubu app allows smartphone users to photograph animals that have been hit by cars and upload the images. A team of experts will then classify the species of the roadkill, identify the most affected species and map out high-risk areas.

The long-term goal is to use this crowdsourced information to accordingly adapt road systems to reduce roadkill instances.